Belgium receives defense systems from the UK to combat disruptive drones
The leader of the British military announced on Sunday that the country is sending technology and specialists to Belgium to assist in the fight against disruptive drone sightings that have caused airports to briefly close.
In the past week, drones have been seen over Belgian airports and military installations after causing significant disruptions around Europe in previous months.
Britain’s military chief, Richard Knighton, told the BBC that his Belgian colleague had requested help and that supplies and troops were en route.
He stated, “The defense secretary and I agreed at the end of last week that we would deploy our people and our equipment to Belgium to help them,” but he did not specify the type of equipment or the number of personnel that would be sent.
Although the identity of the person responsible for the drone sightings is still unknown, Knighton pointed out that Russia has been engaging in “hybrid warfare” in recent years.
Russia has denied any involvement in the events.
Some planes scheduled to depart on Tuesday were grounded and numerous inbound planes were diverted after drones were seen flying above airports in the east of the country, including Liege and the capital, Brussels.
Airports in Sweden and other nations were forced to temporarily close on Thursday due to drone sightings.
On Friday, the German defense minister made a suggestion that recent drone occurrences in Belgium were related to the talks about using blocked Russian assets owned by Belgian banking organization Euroclear to finance a significant loan to Ukraine.
